What’s it like to own a car that’s nearly 100 years old?
You’ll get your chance to see the venerable Ford Model A and ask questions of the owners when members of the Calumet Region of the Model A Restorers Club put their Model As on display from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, at Van Drunen Ford, 3223 183rd St. in Homewood.
The Model A was the first car sold by the Van Drunen dealership 86 years ago.
The event marks the international celebration of Model A Day.
Ford’s second version Model A was built from 1927 to 1931. It was the successor of the Model T.
In the 1920s, cars were the rage. Sales of the new 1928 Model As were strong, and Morse Van Drunen talked about a dealership. Despite the stock market crash in October 1929, car sales were “exploding all along the country,” according to Van Drunen history.
Van Drunen stuck to his idea. The grand opening of the first Van Drunen Ford showroom at 18027-29 Dixie Highway was Sept. 20, 1930. It filled the former Homewood Motor Co. space, a short-lived Ford dealership on the 18000 block of Dixie Highway.
The dealership managed to pull through the Great Depression and World War II, when no new cars were built. Today the Van Drunen dealership is Ford’s oldest Chicagoland dealership, and Homewood’s oldest business continuously operated by the same family.